New Hampshire Planned Parenthoods May Close After De-Funding

Following a vote in New Hampshire to cancel a $1.8 million contract, the Planned Parenthood abortion business is cutting back services and may have to close one or more of the six centers it runs in the Granite State.

The Executive Council voted on June 22 to revoke the contract and that vote went into effect on July 1. Since then, according to a Keene Sentinel report, the pro-abortion organization has been cutting back Planned Parenthood of Northern New England spokeswoman Jennifer L. Frizzell told the paper. She told Sentinel that Planned Parenthood is operating on a week to week basis and may have to stop providing non-abortion services when funding dries up, reduce hours, or close.

“What we’ve been doing in the short run, and we can’t continue for much longer, is keeping our doors open,” she said.

Frizzell also said Planed Parenthood is looking at negotiating with the Executive Council to renegotiate the contract or it may file a lawsuit if that falls through. The taxpayer funding accounts for 20 percent of its annual budget.

The abortion business also launched an advertising campaign in the state designed to attack the vote. It asks Daniel St. Hilaire of Concord, one of the council members, to reconsider his vote and it claims women are denied health care because of it.

But St. Hilaire told the Concord Monitor newspaper the contract should go to an organization that does not perform abortions.

The council voted 3-2 for terminating the taxpayer funded contract with David K. Wheeler, a Republican, saying, “It is wrong to require taxpayers who believe that abortion is murder to have to pay for (abortions).”

Although the money doesn’t directly pay for abortions, pro-life advocates say it is wrong to fund the abortion business and abortions indirectly. Now, money that was freed up to do abortions must be used to provide legitimate health care.

The Executive Council voided the contract with Planned Parenthood of Northern New England (PPNNE) with Councilor Dan St. Hilaire of Concord casting a vote against the contract along with David Wheeler of Nashua and Raymond J. Wieczorek of Manchester. The Union Leader indicates Raymond S. Burton of Bath and Chris Sununu of Newfields supported funding the abortion business.

While the council approved contracts for legitimate medical centers and organizations, St. Hilaire told the newspaper that Planned Parenthood does abortions and its CEO earns in excess of $250,000 a year. St. Hilaire also cited the fact that most of the services and administration are located outside New Hampshire, in Vermont.

Commenting on the rejection of the contract, Kevin Smith, the director of the pro-life group Cornerstone Action, said he applauds “a majority of the Executive Council for scrutinizing every penny of tax-payer dollars by rejecting the contract for Planned Parenthood.”

“The taxpayers have made it very clear that they do not want one cent going towards the funding of abortions, either directly or indirectly,” Smith said. “Not to mention, it is obscene how much of PPNNE’s current revenue of $18 million is earmarked for things like overhead costs, salaries, marketing, and public policy advocacy. New Hampshire women deserve better than a “non-profit” that would deny women health services because they value administrative costs and political power above patient care.”

Smith indicated that the most recent annual report for Planned Parenthood of Northern New England shows that, of its $18 million dollars in revenue, $3,126,841 (or 16.9%) was spent on general and administrative costs, $714,877 (or 3.9%) was spent on policy advocacy spending or lobbying, $597,000 (or 3.2%) was spent on marketing and communications and $568,397 (or 3.1%) was spent on fundraising.

The trend of de-funding Planned Parenthood started last year when New Jersey Governor Chris Christie signed a budget which eliminated about 7.5 million dollars worth of family planning funding, part of which went to the abortion business.